Treatment apparatus



Dec. 2, 1969 s. c. CORBETT TREATMENT APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 13, 1968 luvs-mun; S (BMW CHRRLES (.oR Be'r-r Dec. 2, 1969 s. c. CORBETT TREATMENT APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 13, 1968 SVJWH/ Cl-mkteg Coraaev'r I a MS (44A Dec. 2, 1969 s. c. CORBETT TREATMENT APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 13, 1968 luve-mk: 54 (mews Cofiisefl' B 2, 1969 s. c. CORBETT 3,481,347

TREATMENT APPARATUS Filed Feb. 13, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 l I l I l l I l 'MvuTOEZ gYJWQ/ CHARMS CoRsTr AGGIJT United States Patent 3,481,347 TREATMENT APPARATUS Sydney C. Corbett, Birmingham, England, assignor to The Hockley Chemical Company Limited, Birmingham, England, a British Company Filed Feb. 13, 1968, Ser. No. 705,212 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Feb. 16, 1967, 7,375/ 67 Int. Cl. B08b 3/06 US. Cl. 134-69 16 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to treatment apparatus for carrying out various treatment operations such as, for example, cleaning, rinsing, bright dipping, chromating, phosphating, chemical blacking, pickling, descaling, drying, cooling etc. on workpieces, the apparatus including one or more drums or like vessels adapted to have workpieces fed thereinto and to have workpieces discharged therefrom, the, or each, drum or like vessel being supported at the, or each, treatment station by a frame or the like in such a position relative to a member in which the selected treatment media is disposed and the construction of the drum being such that the workpieces contained therein are exposed to the media, such apparatus being hereinafter referred to as treatment apparatus of the kind specified.

Description of the prior art One form of treatment apparatus of the kind specified has included a tippable basket at each treatment station and means have been provided whereby, on completion of a treatment operation at a station, the basket has been tipped to transfer the workpieces into a succeeding basket or to transfer the workpieces to a discharge station.

It is an object of the present invention to provide, in or for a treatment apparatus of the kind specified, a new or improved form of vessel for containing workpieces whilst they are subjected to a treatment operation.

. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new or improved form of treatment apparatus of the kind specified, the construction of which is considerably simpler and thus more economic than those heretofore proposed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect of the present invention I provide treatment apparatus of the kind specified including an elongate frame, a plurality of aligned workpiece treatment vessels supported from said frame, each of said vessels being of drum-like form, having peripheral apertures therein and having each side wall thereof formed with a central aperture and each side wall having secured thereto in register with the aperture therein a hollow spindle, one of said spindles, being the input spindle, being provided with means for feeding workpieces into its associated vessel and the other of said spindles, being the output spindle, being provided with means for discharging workpieces from said vessel, means within each 3"4 8 1 Patented Dec. 2, 1969 of said vessels for effecting agitation of the workpieces therein in response to limited angular movement of said vessel and with means for effecting discharge of the workpieces therefrom in response to rotation of said vessel, means for supporting treatment media in register with said vessels whereby workpieces contained therein can be subected to said media and means for imparting limited angular movement to said vessels and for imparting rotational movement to said vessel.

According to a further aspect of the present invention I provide, in or for treatment apparatus of the kind specified, a workpiece containing vessel, said vessel being of drum-like form, being adapted for rotation about the axis thereof and having peripheral apertures therein, each side 'wall having a central aperture and having secured thereto and extending laterally therefrom and in register with said aperture a hollow support spindle, one of said spindle, being the input spindle, being provided with means for receiving workpieces and feeding same into the vessel, the other spindle, being the output spindle, being provided with means for receiving the workpieces from the vessel and discharging same therefrom, the vessel being provided internally over a major portion of its circumferential arc with transverse baffles, to effect agitation of the workpieces in response to oscillation of the vessel and over a minor portion of its circumferential arc with a pick-up baflle whereby in response to complete rotation of the vessel the workpieces therein are picked up and passed to the outlet spindle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS One form of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a view in side elevation, partly broken away of a complete treatment unit,

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged broken View showing one of the treatment vessels,

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged view showing the supporting means for the vessels, and

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged view showing means whereby the supporting tanks for the treatment media can be removed from the machine.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the form of my invention illustrated the apparatus provides seven treatment drums and may be used, for example, for carrying out a pickling operation. The first stage 10 is the cleaning stage, the next 11 a rinsing stage followed by the pickling stages 12 and 13, one cold rinse stage 14 and a final hot rinse stage 15.

The apparatus includes a generally rectangular frame 16 which may conveniently be built up from angle or box section material which provides, as will presently be described, support for the various treatment drums 17, for the drive means therefor and for the hood 18 which extends over the apparatus. At each of the treatment stages or stations 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, there is supported from the frame 16 a tank 19 in which the treatment solution is contained, these tanks 19 being in register with the treatment drums, the arrangement being such that the lower portion of each drum dips into the solution contained in the corresponding tank 19. Each tank 19 is provided with pipe and valve work indicated generally at 20, whereby the solution may be re-circulated, passed to waste or passed for re-generation as may be desired.

Each drum 17, with the exception of the two drums at the first station 10, is connected to the preceding and succeeding drums by means of a hollow spindle 21, there being at the inlet end of the apparatus a loading chute or hopper 22 and at the other end a discharge chute 23.

Some or all of the spindles 21 are provided externally with a groove or track 24 which is adapted to locate on a pair of supporting rollers 25, one roller of each pair being itself supported from each side of the frame of the apparatus as will presently be described, means being provided for adjusting the position of these rollers so as to enable axial alignment of the drums to be achieved and maintained.

During the course of treatment it is necessary for the drums to be both oscillated and rotated and, to this end, between stations and 11 and stations 14 and 15 the hollow spindle 21 has secured thereto a sprocket wheel 26 adapted to receive a driving chain driven by driving sprockets 27 secured on a driving shaft 28 which extends along one side of the apparatus and which is driven through the medium of a hydraulic motor, operation of which is controlled by an electric timing unit mounted in a control cabinet 29.

The hood 18 includes a number of transparent panels 30 provided with handles 31 so that not only can operation of the apparatus be seen through the hood but an individual panel can readily be removed if it is desired to carry out adjustments to the apparatus. Associated with the hood 18 is a vent 32 adapted to be connected to a suitable extractor or to a flue whereby fumes, steam or other unwanted gaseous media can be withdrawn.

The purpose of providing two drums 17 mounted in direct side-by-side relationship at the cleaning station 10 is of course to enable the workpieces to be subjected to the cleaning media for twice the length of time that they are subjected to any of the successive treatment media.

As will be seen from FIGURE 2, which shows a drum 17 with a hollow spindle 21 secured to each side wall thereof, each drum includes a pair of side walls 33, each of which is provided with a central opening 34 in register with which is secured the hollow spindle 21 so that there is an axial through passage throughout the whole of the apparatus. Secured between the side walls 33 of each drum 17 is the peripheral wall 35 which, as will be seen, is of perforate form so as to enable the treatment media to enter that part of the drum which dips into the liquid in the corresponding tank, there being mounted on the inside face of the peripheral wall 35 a plurality of transversely extending baffles 36, each of which may be of V-section, these baflles being provided over the major circumferential arc of the drum. Mounted in each drum in the remaining or minor circumferential arc portion thereof which will be that portion which is uppermost during the major part of the treatment cycle is a pick-up plate 37 with which is associated a downwardly inclined discharge plate 38, which plate 38 is in register with an inclined feed plate 39 mounted in the spindle 21 on the discharge or outlet side of the drum 17. A similar feed plate 39 is mounted in the spindle 21 on the feed or input side of the drum 17 and this will be course be in register with the inclined plate 38 of the preceding drum.

Basic operation of the apparatus is thus as follows. With the selected load of workpieces in a drum these will of course be resting in the lower portion thereof and will thus be in the treatment media. The drum is oscillated through a pro-selected amount of arc which may be up to as much as 300 of arc. During this period of oscillation the workpieces will be tumbled in the treatment media due not only to the movement of the drum as such but due to the agitating or breaking up effect of the transverse baflles 36. At the end of the determined period of treatment the drum is caused to rotate through a complete revolution and during the course of such rotation the plate 37 will of course move into the lower position and as it passes through such lower position will pick up the workpieces and convey them upwardly whilst they are supported upon the plate until the drum returns to its previous position where the plate 37 is uppermost. Upon reaching this position the workpieces will fall by gravity off the plate 37, will fall on to the inclined plate 4 38 and will thus be discharged from the drum on to the inclined plate 39 of the outlet spindle from which they will pass into the next succeeding drum or, in the case of the final treatment station, to the discharge chute 23. In order to ensure that all workpieces are discharged from each treatment station rotation of the drum is reversed for a short angular distance after the plate 37 has reached the top centre position and is thereafter restored to the original direction of rotation so as to, in effect, jerk free any workpieces that may have become lodged.

With all of the treatment drums secured together this oscillatory movement followed by rotational movement applies of course throughout the apparatus and thus one achieves a successive throughput of workpieces from one stage to another.

In the form of my invention illustrated the drums are made of stainless steel and with a drum diameter of 2 feet 9 inches each drum can carry a load of 56 lbs. of workpieces and with a cycle time of 30 seconds at each treatment station a throughput of some 2 to 3 tons of Workpieces per hour can be achieved.

The loading tray or chute 22 is conveniently hinged adjacent its lower end to the frame 16 and is provided with spring or like support means whereby there may be obtained some visual or other indication that a given work load has been placed on the tray 22 so that an operator knows that a full work load is ready for loading into the machine. Alternatively, the loading table or chute may be raised and lowered by coupling it to the hydraulic mechanism of the apparatus so that it can be moved between a work receiving position and a work feeding position in timed relationship to the operation of the apparatus as a Whole.

The driving sprockets 27 are mounted on a main driving shaft 40 which is driven by the hydraulic motor, which motor is controlled through a suitable hydraulic circuit from the electrical timer or control unit housed in the control cabinet 29, the control unit consisting basically of a cam whose movements both by way of oscillation and by way of rotation correspond to the desired movements of the drums, the cam operating during the course of its angular movements four micro-switches which are angularly spaced around the path of travel of the cam, these switches controlling the sequential operation of the hydraulic motor, the position of at least two of these switches being adjustable so as to enable one to select the degree of are through which oscillation of the drums shall take place.

In order to facilitate axial alignment of the drums and to provide adjustment to compensate for wear on the rollers and to facilitate replacement of the rollers, each drum supporting roller 25 is mounted for rotation upon a spindle 41 which is provided with squared ends 42 which seat in square slots in the side walls 43 of a roller carrying block 44 which is mounted on one end of a shaft 45 which passes through a member of the frame 16 and which is in threaded engagement with a collar 46. Adjustment is by screw 47, the free end of which is provided with suitable flats for a spanner or like means whereby it can be rotated. Thus, by rotating the screw 47 the roller supporting housing 43 and the roller 25 carried thereby can be moved toward or away from the longitudinal centre line of the apparatus so that if both rollers 25 of a pair are both adjusted inwardly they will raise the drum spindle 24 which is supported thereby or if they are moved away from one another the drum spindle will lower. Thus accurate alignment of all the drums may be achieved. Similarly, by withdrawing one roller 25 and its housing from contact with its associated drum spindle, the roller can readily be replaced by just lifting it out of its housing and putting a fresh one in. Again if wear takes place on a roller, then the wear can be taken up and the axial alignment of the drum spindle restored by moving the roller inwardly toward the centre line of the machine.

To facilitate removal of the treatment media containing tanks 19 each tank is provided with an apertured lug 48 as shown in FIGURE 4 which is adapted to receive the lower end of a rod 49 whose upper end 50 is screw threaded and upon which is mounted an internally threaded rotatable collar '51 which is associated with a block 52 which can be mounted over a member of the frame 16. The tanks 19 rest on supporting brackets which are readily detachable from the frame of the apparatus so that when it is desired to remove a tank for maintenance purposes or for cleaning the tank a rod 49 and its associated components is engaged with the lug 48 on either side of the tank 19, the blocks 52 are located on the frame 16 and the threaded nuts 51 rotated so as to raise the tanks 19 clear of its supporting brackets. With the tank thus clear of the supporting brackets and with the tank suspended by the rods 49 the supporting brackets can be removed and the nuts 51 can then be rotated in the opposite direction and the tank 19 lowered on to the floor or other supporting surface and then withdrawn laterally from under the apparatus.

Thus the tanks can be removed with a minimum of interference with the apparatus as a whole.

Although in the form of the apparatus described above the treatment drums are formed of steel, it is envisaged that these could well be formed of a suitable plastics material such as polypropylene and with such an apparatus for carrying out electroplating operations drums formed of polypropylene would be required.

Whilst the invention has been described above in relation to a machine which incorporates seven treatment drums there may be any desired number of drums but it is envisaged that if only a small number of drums, say three, are required then the hydraulic drive unit would be too expensive for the total cost of such a small machine and thus with small machines it is envisaged that the drive would be from a suitable geared motor with the interposition of some form of hydraulic or like coupling so as to take up the shock to the drive resulting from the reversal of drive to provide the oscillatory movement to the drums.

It is also contemplated that the apparatus might comprise a single treatment barrel for carrying out basic rinsing or cleansing operations and with such an arrangement the internal bafile in the drum may be arranged so that during rotation of the drum in one direction the bafile will not pick up the workpieces but will only pick up and discharge upon rotation of the drum in the reverse direction.

Where the treatment which one wishes to give to the workpieces is such as to necessitate drying thereof, then two further treatment drums could be provided after the final hot rinse stage referred to above, such further treatment drums being associated with means for blowing hot air through the drums so as to achieve the drying of the workpieces. Alternatively of course the workpieces may, after discharge from the treatment apparatus, be taken to a separate drying unit or the treatment apparatus can have associated therewith on the workshop floor a drying unit, the apparatus and the unit being so arranged that the workpieces are discharged direct from the apparatus into the drying unit.

When an electro-plating operation is performed the anodes can be suspended in the tank in the normal manner, i.e. as in an ordinary barrel plating machine.

The cathodic connections can be either danglers or inter-connected studs inside the barrel or drum, again common practice. Electrical connection to the studs or danglers will be via suitable brush gear mounted round the periphery of said hollow spindles.

What I then claim is:

1. Liquid treatment apparatus of the kind specified including an elongate frame, a plurality of aligned workpiece treatment vessels supported from said frame, each of said vessels being of drum-like form with a perforate circumferential wall supported bet-ween two side walls,

each side wall thereof formed with a central aperture and each side wall having secured thereto in register with the aperture therein a hollow spindle, adapted on the one hand to receive workpieces from a preceding station and to feed them into the vessel and, on the other hand, to receive workpieces from the vessel and discharge same therefrom, means, disposed within each vessel, for effecting agitation of the workpieces contained therein in response to limited angular movement of such vessel and means disposed within each vessel for effecting discharge of such workpieces therefrom in response to complete rotation of said vessel, said apparatus further including means for supporting the treatment liquid in operative relation to said vessels and means for effecting limited angular movement of said vessels and for effecting complete rotation thereof.

2. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for effecting agitation of the workpieces in response to limited angular movement of the vessels comprises internal bafil-es extending transversely between the side walls of the vessel and mounted in abutting relationship with the circumferential wall thereof.

3. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein the transverse baffles are of V section and wherein they are disposed around the major degree of arc of the vessel, the baffles being equi-angularly spaced from one another.

4. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for effecting discharge of the workpieces in response to complete rotation of the vessels includes a pick-up baflle disposed within the minor degree of arc of the vessel and extending between the side walls thereof and into abutting relationship with the circumferential wall thereof and having mounted in operative relationship therewith a discharge bafile adapted to guide the workpieces toward the one central aperture.

5. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein each spindle includes an inclined baffle adapted to register with and receive workpieces from the discharge baflle of the treatment vessel.

6. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the circumferential wall of the vessel is perforate.

7. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein each vessel is made of polypropylene.

8. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for supporting the workpiece treatment vessels from the frame includes pairs of rollers, the rollers of each pair being supported from opposite sides of the frame, the rollers being mounted so as to engage and support the spindles intermediate the treatment vessels.

9. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein support means for each roller includes adjustment means for advancing each roller toward or away from the longitudinal axis of the apparatus.

10. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the support means further includes a roller receiving cradle having a pair of spaced supporting arms each formed with recesses into which the ends of the roller supporting spindle can be non-rotatably located.

11. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for effecting oscillation and complete rotation of the vessels includes sprocket wheels mounted on some of the spindles of the apparatus, said sprocket wheels being in chain drive communication with sprocket wheels said table being adapted to discharge into the first treatment vessel in response to predetermined load of workpieces being loaded thereon.

15. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the frame of the apparatus supports a hood extending over the treatment vessels and wherein the hood includes a number of transparent panels some of which are de- (tachable.

16. Treatment apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for supporting the treatment liquid in operative relation to the vessels includes a plurality of tanks adapted to contain the treatment liquid, the tanks :being supported from the frame of the apparatus and means being provided whereby said tanks can be indiyidually withdrawn without dis-assembly of the complete apparatus.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 ROBERT L. BLEUTGE, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 134159 

